Important questions about the atom
http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=51
http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~acarpi/NSC/3-atoms.htm
1. What are the three major components (parts) of an atom and where are they found? Include a visual.
2. What is true of most of the space inside an atom?
inside of an atom's volume consists of a cloud of electrons that have very small mass and a negative charge
3. What is characteristically different from one atomic element to another (like helium and oxygen)?
4. atomic number describes the number of protons in an atom, atomic mass tells you the number of protons and neutrons in an atom.

external image hydrogen.gif
external image deuterum.gif
Hydrogen
Atomic Mass = 1
Atomic Number = 1
Deuterium
Atomic Mass = 2
Atomic Number = 1

5. Compare the relative masses of the three subatomic particles and their charges. Create a data table.
6. What is an isotope? Visually show two isotopes and explain how they are similar and different from each other.
7. What happens when matter is heated?
8. What happens when white light passes through a prism? From a physics perspective, how are colors of light different from one another? Include a visual.
9. What are atomic line spectra? Where do they come from? Include visuals of line spectra of at least two different elements.

There are different atomic line spectras. One is the Atomic Absorpotion Spectra, which happens when light passes through cold, thin gas and the atoms in the gas absorb at characteristic frequencies. Since the re-emitted light is not likely to be emitted in the same direction as the absorbed photon, this gives rise to dark lines in the spectrum. The other line spectra is the emittion line, which is formed when an electron makes a transition from an energy level of an atom, to a lower energy state, which emits a photon of certain energy and wavelength. A spectrum of a lot of photons will show an emission spike at the wavelength.
external image issue4spectrometer11_large.jpg